Blog

This year it’s been mild and the leaves on the vines only really started to fall recently after we had a couple of days when the temperature dropped below zero.

Another amazing wine from Jo Pithon, his Coteau des Treilles 2009. We have a few bottles of a few different vintages in our cellar and it’s a while since we tasted the 2009.

The appellation Anjou-Villages Brissac was created in 1998 and covers a dozen communes around the market town of Brissac making quality reds for ageing.

French people are very secretive about mushrooms. They don’t let on where you can find them in case you go and pinch them yourselves.

Using up bits and bobs in the fridge to make a really tasty winter lunch. I took half a butternut squash and half an aubergine,

Off-beat to say the least. Jean-François Merieau’s Tu le Boa is an extraordinary wine. In 2000 he made just 1500 bottles from tiny yields (around 20hl/ha) of Sauvignon Blanc.

We’ve been living in the Loire for 12 years now and this is the first year that we have seen smiles on the faces of growers all over the region.

It was a great opportunity to discover some non-French wines and one or two of them really made an impression on us such as this one, Ekam from Raül Bobet.

While most of the Cab Francs have been brought in in the appellations of Chinon, Bourgueil and St Nicolas de Bourgueil there are still grapes hanging on the vines in Anjou.

Harvest is in full swing here in the Loire and for the first time in three years we are seeing broad smiles on the faces of our partner growers as they bring in decent volumes of lovely looking grapes.

Alexandre Bain’s Les Grandes Hates 2014 was tasting just delicious last night. A hugely expressive nose full of white fleshed fruits and flowers followed by a delicious richness on the palate.

It’s so nice to see smiles on the faces of growers in the Loire this year. For the most part, everyone seems delighted with both the quantity and the quality that is coming in.